Part of growing up was learning not to be quite that honest - learning when it was better to lie, rather than to hurt someone with the truth.
Jodi PicoultI used to believe everything my brother told me, because he was older and I figured he knew more about the world. But as it turns out, being a grown-up doesnโt mean youโre fearless. It just means you fear different things.
Jodi PicoultCrazy girls did this, girls who walked like zombies through YA novels. But. Trixie felt the sting of the skin as it split, the sweet welling rise of blood. It hurt, though not as much as everything else idd.
Jodi PicoultWas it the act of giving birth that made you a mother? Did you lose that label when you relinquished your child? If people were measured by their deeds, on the one hand, I had a woman who had chosen to give me up; on the other, I had a woman who'd sat up with me at night when I was sick as a child, who'd cried with me over boyfriends, who'd clapped fiercely at my law school graduation. Which acts made you more of a mother? Both, I realized. Being a parent wasn't just about bearing a child. It was about bearing witness to its life.
Jodi Picoult